Sticks and Stones...

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me".... when I was a child, this is what we used to say to people who were mean to us.  The truth is, though, words can and do hurt.

Words hurt, heal, motivate, and aggravate.

They are powerful.

They control emotions and can even control a person physically.


A word is worth a thousand pictures.

“Come here.” Two words that move a person from there to here.

“Write this down.” Three words that cause people to put words on a page.

“Remember a time when you felt angry.” Seven words that can create an overload of emotions.

Your words are power. Think of the number of people you have made smile by saying, “I really appreciate you.” Or the number of people you have hurt by saying, “What’s wrong with you? Can’t you do anything right?”

Words possess just as much power when spoken to a crowd of a thousand as in a one on one conversation. It’s one thing to get one person excited, but impassion an entire group, and you have irresistible intensity on your side.

Use your words more effectively…

1. Understand their influence. Do not use or choose your terms lightly. A wrong word can turn an audience from friends to fiends. The better you know your group the better you can tailor your terms for their benefit.

You get to choose the outcome. Want the group to be charged, mad, excited, encouraged, content, or happy? You can produce any of those by using the right words in the right way.

2. Don’t be afraid to be edgy. Too many speakers are soft. You can be tough without being obnoxious, or insulting a group’s intelligence. You can be humorous and still make a hard-hitting point.

Imagine this - "coming in at 1 a.m. after spending two days speaking to 1,500 people. Get this – all the reviews came back at the top level, and I was tough on the folks. Several came up and said, “You’re not afraid to tell it like it is!” The words I chose challenged the group without breaking them."  This can be you!

What about your words? Do you toss them out lightly, or with precision power? Your words can change lives and influence millions. Choose and use them well.   To your speaking success   Fran

Impress With Words

How To Impress With Words In 3 Simple Steps
By Michael Lee

Knowing how to impress with words can help you in so many ways. It can help you communicate your message better, create more impact and get ahead.

Using the right words is, of course, important in communication. But effective communication involves more than just that. Here are 3 simple steps on how to impress with words and connect proficiently with other people.

Step 1: Listen.

Communication is a two-way process; and for it to be successful, realize that you are not the only one who should get to talk.

When you are speaking with another person, concentrate on what he or she is saying. Listen actively and decisively, so that your mind wouldn't wander.

Remember, what you want is to gain information, understand others, share concepts, solve problems, explain misunderstandings and so on. This will also help you determine the tone and the context of the conversation, what words to say or what questions to ask.

Showing the other person that you are an active listener will make people love to be with you.

Step 2: Less Is More.

We often spend more time talking about the superficial than the essential and significant things. We tend to linger on the introductory speech, the pleasantries and so on. But if you want to be an effective communicator, realize that less is more.

Use fewer, carefully chosen and precise words to express your thoughts and ideas. Don't beat around the bush. Be specific and keep it simple.

Using too many words may cause you to stray from the topic at hand. Learn how to impress people with words by being concise, expressing your thoughts clearly, and keeping to the point.

Step 3: Ask Questions.

Don't be afraid or intimidated to clarify something that you don't understand. This doesn't only show that you listened and understood what was said, it also shows that you are interested in the topic and that you care enough about it to avoid misunderstandings.

Another tip on how to impress with words is by asking questions that are open-ended. This will help the conversation flow more smoothly and less forced. It will also help you learn more about the person or the subject being discussed, and can possibly direct the conversation to more interesting topics.

Learning how to impress with words is easy, as long as you keep your mind open. This will allow you to listen and speak more clearly and efficiently. And it will also help you understand other people and relate to them better

To your speaking success Fran

Growing Your Vocabulary

Boys flying kites haul in their white winged birds;
You can't do that way when you're flying words.
"Careful with fire," is good advice we know,
"Careful with words," is ten times doubly so.
Thoughts unexpressed many sometimes fall back dead;
But God Himself can't kill them when they're said.

—Will Carleton, The First Settler's Story.

The term "vocabulary" has a special as well as a general meaning. True, all vocabularies are grounded in the everyday words of the language, out of which grow the special vocabularies, but each such specialized group possesses a number of words of peculiar value for its own objects. These words may be used in other vocabularies also, but the fact that they are suited to a unique order of expression marks them as of special value to a particular craft or calling.

In this respect the public speaker differs not at all from the poet, the novelist, the scientist, the traveler. He must add to his everyday stock, words of value for the public presentation of thought.

A study of the discourses of effective orators discloses the fact that they have a fondness for words signifying power, largeness, speed, action, color, light, and all their opposites. They frequently employ words expressive of the various emotions. Descriptive words, adjectives used in fresh relations with nouns, and apt epithets, are freely employed. Indeed, the nature of public speech permits the use of mildly exaggerated words which, by the time they have reached the hearer's judgment, will leave only a just impression.

Form the Book-Note Habit


To possess a word involves three things: To know its special and broader meanings, to know its relation to other words, and to be able to use it. When you see or hear a familiar word used in an unfamiliar sense, jot it down, look it up, and master it.

Use a new word accurately five times and it is yours. Professor Albert E. Hancock says: "An author's vocabulary is of two kinds, latent and dynamic: latent—those words he understands; dynamic—those he can readily use. Every intelligent man knows all the words he needs, but he may not have them all ready for active service. The problem of literary diction consists in turning the latent into the dynamic."


Your dynamic vocabulary is the one you must especially cultivate.

Form the Reference-Book Habit


Do not be content with your general knowledge of a word—press your study until you have mastered its individual shades of meaning and usage. Mere fluency is sure to become despicable, but accuracy never. The dictionary contains the crystallized usage of intellectual giants. No one who would write effectively dare despise its definitions and discriminations. Think, for example, of the different meanings of mantle, or model, or quantity. Any late edition of an unabridged dictionary is good, and is worth making sacrifices to own.

Word derivations are rich in suggestiveness. Our English owes so much to foreign tongues and has changed so much with the centuries that whole addresses may grow out of a single root-idea hidden away in an ancient word-origin. Translation, also, is excellent exercise in word-mastery and consorts well with the study of derivations.

Search Faithfully for the Right Word


Books of reference are tripled in value when their owner has a passion for getting the kernels out of their shells. Ten minutes a day will do wonders for the nut-cracker. "I am growing so peevish about my writing," says Flaubert. "I am like a man whose ear is true, but who plays falsely on the violin: his fingers refuse to reproduce precisely those sounds of which he has the inward sense. Then the tears come rolling down from the poor scraper's eyes and the bow falls from his hand."

The same brilliant Frenchman sent this sound advice to his pupil, Guy de Maupassant: "Whatever may be the thing which one wishes to say, there is but one word for expressing it, only one verb to animate it, only one adjective to qualify it. It is essential to search for this word, for this verb, for this adjective, until they are discovered, and to be satisfied with nothing else."

Here is an exercise to help you grow your vocabulary: 

Find as many synonyms and antonyms as possible for each of the following words: Excess, Rare, Severe, Beautiful, Clear, Happy, Difference, Care, Skillful, Involve, Enmity, Profit, Absurd, Evident, Faint, Friendly, Harmony, Hatred, Honest, Inherent.

Subscribe to "Wordsmith" and get a word each day.

Don't be pugnacious!

Fran

http://www.franwatson.ca/PublicSpeaking/index2.html

Are you Edacious?

I subscribe to a daily word service. Each day I am sent some interesting words to add to my vocabulary and today's word is one that can easily be incorporated into anyone's conversation, arousing a bit of interest and an opportunity to share it's meaning. If you are the Word Master for a Toastmaster's Club, it is an excellent word to bring to the table. I would like to encourage you to be an edacious Toastmaster or Public Speaker devouring all the information you can about the subject of public speaking.

A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg


edacious
PRONUNCIATION: (i-DAY-shuhs)
MEANING: adjective: Devouring; voracious.


ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin edere (to eat). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ed- (to eat, to bite) that has given other words such as edible, comestible, obese, etch, fret, and postprandial.


USAGE:
"For too many years my edacious reading habits had been leading me into one unappealing corner after another, dank cul-de-sacs littered with tear-stained diaries, empty pill bottles, bulging briefcases, broken vows, humdrum phrases, sociological swab samples, and the (lovely?) bones of dismembered children."
Tom Robbins; In Defiance of Gravity; Harper's (New York); Sep 2004.

You can sign up for your own "word of the day" by going to Wordsmith.org and I would encourage you to be a more edacious reader and learner.

To a Better You!!

Fran Watson

P.S. Check out this book - Mastering Public Speaking